Hi! My name is James and I’m a self confessed dream team addict and coach of ‘The Running Man’. Last week, I wrote the article ‘good trade, bad trade’ and enjoyed it so much I thought I would do it every week! Besides, Roy is too busy being in the top 200* to continue with ‘trade talk Tuesday’ so we need somewhere to solely discuss trades!

*Probably busier than me

Fyfe’s shoulder injury not that humerus, so who will shoulder the burden? (All puns fully intended)

As we found out on Tuesday, Freo gun/avatar look-a-like Nat Fyfe left training clutching his shoulder (we’ll assume he was hip and shouldered by John ‘actually it’s Jack’ Anthony as he doesn’t want to get dropped) and now we have found out he will miss 12 weeks and needs to be traded for those coaches who didn’t pull the trigger two weeks ago.

On the bright side, he didn’t do this 2 minutes into a game, costing us more money and valuable points, so Anthony has sort of done something right. Warnie covered which premiums to get in for Fyfe on Tuesday and covered some very solid premium options. Unfortunately if you have no cash in the bank and only want to use one trade, only Zaha and Luke Power would be on your radar. I think there are a couple of others closer to home who may benefit from Fyfe’s omission (other than Greg Broughton) to consider

**Clancee Pearce ($395,100, b/e 49)

The southern red neck could be this years’ Jack Redden. Last week Clancee only got his hands on the sherrin 20 times but amassed a massive 10 tackles for 94 points. Gotta love a player who tackles like a demon! With a 3 rd average of 106, DPP and only in 2.75% of teams he can make a good unique for your team. After 4 seasons and 31 games, 2012 truly look likes his breakout season.

**Matthew Pavlich ($394,700 b/e 80)

Ah good ol Pav. Some think he may be over the DT hill, but from all reports in the preseason, he is fitter than ever and now may get more midfield time without Fyfe. In a massive 13.56% of teams (probably all freo supporters?) he could be a great buy if he gets back to his old ways of averaging 90’s, like he has for the past 7 years. (Also a big shout out to Arnold and his team ranked 98699 that gave me a laugh when researching Pavlich, ‘Pavlich my balls’)

**likely to also get injured by Jack Anthony at training

Allen Christensen ($363,300 b/e 21)

This bloke had a whole heap of hype in the preseason due to his 2nd half of last season averaging 85 in the last 10 games. Read all about it in the deck of DT. Due to preseason injury, AC has gone under the radar but now looks truly over his injuries after pumping out 2 tons in his last 2 games (one was in 3 feet of water at the Gabba too) and has a 3 round average of 95. While he is still cheap as chips and the same bye round as Fyfe, he could one of the buys of the season.

Food for thought (but not donuts)

This DT season brings us new challenges never encountered before, especially, the bye rounds. If the carnage of DT continues and the donuts are flowing freely when all 18 teams are playing, it is going to be almost impossible to get through the bye rounds with only 2 donuts. For example, I got all excited on Monday that my first cow (Devon Smith) had almost fattened and was due for a cull to Pfeiffer, or an upgrade to AC but thought ‘hang on? Who is going to be my rd forward 11 keepers?’ which got me thinking. The only other ‘keeper’ I have in the forward line is Patrick Dangerfield and I’m not very keen on any other rd 11 fwd keepers (in order of highest average currently – Power, Tippett, Sherman, Harvey and Darling) none of these guys are likely to be traded into my team any time soon which leaves me left with Danger, Treloar and Devon Smith as the only rd 11 fwds currently in my team. Other rookies from rd 11 byes may pop up as a downgrade targets (Zorko, Weedon, Skinner) but relying on these sort of guys playing could be a high risk strategy to avoid donuts. So my food for thought this week is to think very carefully about cashing in all the GWS cows like Cameron, Hampton, Kennedy, Treloar and Smith before the byes, as it may leave you copping donuts in your forward line in rounds 12 and 13, thus why I’m not culling Smith this week.

Question time.

Good question Bez. Last year @impromptuSC won super coach and came 26th in DT with an aggressive trading strategy, he only had 2 trades left by rd 14. The theory is that the sooner your team is set, the sooner you can start pumping out 2200’s on a regular basis. If this means sacrificing a cow a week or 2 early, then so be it. Just make sure that you think the premium is going to be in the top 10 of their respective line, otherwise, you may find you will have to trade him again later in the season. Another consideration is make sure that the ol’ bye structure is still going to work if you plan to get a set line before the MBR’s. Personally I’m hoping my mid line will be Boyd, Thompson, Pendles, Selwood, Murphy and Ablett sooner rather than later. This will leave me with 2 mids from each round and hopefully manageable through the bye rounds.

If you have any questions about trades feel free to hit me up on twitter @jimbobholder

Well that’s it for this week. I am beginning to prepare for the worst on Thursdays (and also 5pm Fridays) with the carnage that is currently Dream Team. Any calculated trades that come with hours of research could be just thrown down the toilet in a matter of seconds!

Well if you have the chance try to move forwards that you can keep this week who aren’t playing into your mids and move Smith and Kennedy (they will almost definitely play) into your forwards, this will allow you to dodge a couple of donuts without making a trade.

As for the players you have mentioned, I’d say Geelong may feel inclined to give the big O a recall (at least I hope so for both our sakes). Wait for the teams to come out, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kruezer gets a rest and Warnock comes in. If Kruezer is still playing I’d say to focus on getting Fyfe and Hurley out for possibly Chapman and depending on what cash you have left, another bottomed out premo or another cash cow who will definitely play.

Other bottomed out fwd premos include (some may need to be given a week or two yet): Beams, O Keefe (give him a week), Stevie J (give him a week too), Martin, Buddy, Zaha, Cloke, Pav and Didak (not recommended at this early stage but could come back this week and smash out the big scores, who knows).

Then ofcourse there are the mid pricers who look like having a breakout year, Christensen, Clancee, Tomahawk and Dangermouse, of those my best pick would be Danger, he plays almost all of his time in the midfield and just pumped out a massive 140!

If you end up in shit creek with only Giles named, swap Kruezer out for HMac, he is still relatively cheap for what you’re gonna get, I can say with confidence that barring injury or a resurgence from Goldstein, HMac will be in the top 3 ruckmen at year’s end.

Hey guys, i need some thoughts on Jack Redden. Should i keep him or trade him off? Only delivered 1 ton so far (105) and is averging 84, well down on last years 109. If i trade him im thinking of going:

My man on the inside says the Lions boys didn’t train today…
and if Rocky had gone down yesterday, it’d be all over AFL.com.au by now, just like Fyfe
(since Tommy is an important lad at the Lions).
Rockliff will play.

I’m keeping Ablett, Every player is likely to miss one or two games this year, Geelong rested every player last year and come finals a fit Geelong was too good for a broken collingwood. Can’t sideways trade every player can we?

What about the donut in your ruck with Sandi ??? For me Chapman a bit risky, and have been hearing some negative talk about Pfiefer. The weird thing is i was also looking at doing trades for Chappy and Pfief. Go with your gut feeling.

curious to why you are wanting to trade Parker out at the moment? Has a breakeven of 38 this week and a good run of games coming up over the next month. Will only continue to smash out good scores and make you money along the way

Since Judd has been left out this week, and i got an important league game would it be worth trading him to someone like Thompson or even Hayes as i thought of judd as a unique.
or just keep him?
Ill only have swan and pendles in my mid.